Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

I’m sad to report that our two rockstar zucchini plants fell victim to their nemisis: the vine borer. I’ve started a couple of new seedlings in hopes of being run over by zucchini again soon. Because I really do want more zucchini. But prior to their demise, they teamed-up and tested my love for zucchini. We were harvesting 5-7 gigantic zucchini a week.

When you’re over-run with zucchini, you have few other options than to get creative and deal with it. Or give them to friends and family, when they aren’t avoiding you and your mutant zucchini. We’ve eaten it for breakfast (the Foodie Toddler’s favorite), grilled (my favorite), in pasta (The Foodie Groom’s favorite), and zucchini parmesan (a house favorite). We repurposed that last dish into baked zucchini fries.

The coating on the zucchini fries gets very crispy in the oven while the insides get soft. You know, kinda like a real french fry… only not. Everyone in this house loves them! I prefer them dipped in a little ranch dressing, The Foodie Groom wants a bowl of marinara, and the kiddo? She just wants more. “Muh. Muh! MUUHHH!!!!”

What’s your favorite way to eat zucchini?

Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

A fun way to serve zucchini - as crispy zucchini fries!

Ingredients

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 eggs

2 cups Panko breadcrumbs

Salt

Pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 lb zucchini, cut into 4-5-inch sticks

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with parchment (or whatever non-stick method you prefer).

Place flour in a large zipper bag.

Whisk eggs with 2 Tbsp water and place in a shallow dish.

Place Panko, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper in a shallow dish and mix to combine.

Place zucchini in the bag with the flour and shake until well coated. Dip the zucchini into the egg and then into the panko, turning to coat well.

That’s funny. We were going to make these last night with dinner, but it was so HOT out, we ditched dinner plans and opted for take-out. These are definitely awesome! I think I like the baked version better than the traditional fried!

I’m amazed at the results that you got without using any oil. I’ve had some zucchini sitting in the crisper for a few days, I am so excited to try this out. Grilled zucchini is definitely my favorite too, but I think these will be my husband’s preferred method of cooking.

I LOVE zucchini! It is one of the vegetables I always have on hand. I have two favorite ways to eat it. The first is to thinly slice it lengthwise and use zucchini instead of noodles for lasagna (I add some breadcrumbs ontop to absorb some of the moisture). The second way is a family favorite; zucchini boats, essentially you cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides until you’re left with a “boat”, cook the insides you took out with some onion (salt, pepper, butter, season however you like), then mix in with your favorite meatloaf recipe and fill the boats with the meat mixture, top with tomato sauce & mozzarella cheese, and bake for about 40 minutes at 350.

Thanks for the tips! Have you tried salting your zucchini “noodles” instead of adding breadcrumbs? We did that for zucchini parmesan to pull out some of the excess moisture before breading and baking and I thought it worked great.

Here’s a tip for deterring vine borers on future plants… Take a toilet paper roll and cut it into thirds. Each circle should be placed in your garden by pressing it into the soil about halfway down the length of the circle of cardboard. (place it so that you can see into the middle of the circle) Meanwhile, plant your new zucchini seed in the hole of the t.p. roll. Basically it’s like a small cardboard fortress that surrounds your new plant. The vine borer only digs in the soil at the surface to reach your plants. With the circle around it the borer cannot dig thru and will try elsewhere to find something green to eat. Works well with all squashes and beans too.

Ahh zucchini. I’d never grown it before and was sort of appalled when mine turned into a Little Shop of Horrors plant inside of a month! So I need zucchini recipes! I tried these also last week and they were delicious. I had the leftovers for lunch the next day, and they certainly weren’t as crispy, but delicious in a different way, thanks!

Do you think I could try crackers instead panko? Not sure where to find the panko in the grocery store.. I usually fry mine with crackers and parm and they are marvelous but i’m going to try the baked version this evening. Hope it works!

You can definitely try – I’m pretty liberal when it comes to substitutions. My store carries panko in two places – on the baking aisle, right next to the bread crumbs & packaged fish fry/onion ring batter mixes and then on the International aisle, with the Asian foods.

I love zucchini too! I learned long ago, they are so much better when small. I pick mine small — they have MUCH more flavor and are easier to “use up”, as opposed to when they are just huge un-flavorful giants.

Sorry you lost your zucchini plants. A suggestion that may or may not work: Plant nasturtiums and African Marigolds next to them…(Try to plant the starts and not seeds for the flowers, but plant seeds or starts for the squash so that the bug repellent flowers are there first.) Something eats our nasturtiums, and I have found squash bugs in the garden… but the zucchini survive. And I smash the squash bugs. Something new was out there in the garden this year and so I added the African Marigolds and it seemed to scare whatever it was away. I have dusted too, in the past, but I did not like using pesticides and the flowers seem to work.
Someone at a green house told me the black zucchini are heirlooms and more resilient. I plant different types of zucchini in case a disease comes… not all will likely catch a disease if of different varieties…. My ideas came from internet sources from other people who said what worked for them… and the flowers have worked. See companion planting for more ideas/info. This looks like a good recipe. Thanks

I saw your recipe on Pinterest and quickly made a batch of these last night. I had to make a few substitutions with what I had on hand, but the results were still crispy and delicious! I actually posted them on my micro blog Sometimes Foodie with a link to your recipe.

Not only have you inspired me to start growing my own zucchini, but your recipe is going in my normal rotation.